Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effect Of Dark Personality Traits And Cultural Logics On Counter-Productive Work Behaviors, Anastasia I. Angelbeck

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social Exchange Theory postulates that individuals build relationships on the basis that the parties involved are mutually engaging in reciprocity of benefits or rewards. Social exchange theory implies certain belief systems and dispositions shift expected ways of relating to organizations, with some more willing to exploit co-workers and organizations. The following study compared the bivariate and incremental importance of the Dark Triad (Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism) in relation to the Triadic Cultural Codes (Face, Honor, and Dignity) in predicting counterproductive work behaviors, both globally and broken down by interpersonal (CWB-I) and organizationally (CWB-O) directed acts. We found significant associations for …

Exploring Female Genital Mutilation Practice Among West African Immigrants In The United States: A Community-Based Participatory Action Research Study, Kani Diop

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This community-based participatory action research study’s primary purposes were first to reach a fuller understanding of the reasons for the continuation and perpetuation of FGM in the context of immigration and second to find out how the New York-New Jersey West African im/migrant community wanted to address FGM. This research afforded the conceptualization of West African im/migrant thoughts, tradeoffs considerations, and calculations behind the FGM decision-making process. The data divulged the West African im/migrants’ concept of mobility and reflect a specific idiosyncrasy in their relentless intent to return to their native countries. This conscious conviction brands them as migrants rather …

The Culture Of Nondisclosure Of Sexual Abuse, Veronica R. Barrios

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The existing understanding of the culture of nondisclosure of sexual abuse is almost entirely absent. It lacks a theoretical framework, an empirical exploration into how it occurs in family relationships, and little is known about disclosure barriers in practice. This dissertation will address these three areas through three separate but related papers. First, the researcher will present a new cohesive theoretical framework that integrates and expands on existing theories for nondisclosure and that incorporates how individual decision-making is nested within social and familial contexts. Second, the researcher will report on an exploratory research study about sibling relationships regarding sexual abuse …

Immigration Experiences : Maintenance And Promotion Of Cultural Values Among Asian Indian Women And Their Children, Harshi Shah

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Guided by the principles of grounded theory, this qualitative study aimed to explore the Asian Indian immigrant women’s experiences in maintaining and promoting the Indian cultural values for themselves and their children, living in the United States. Components of acculturation theory were also utilized as a lens to interpret the data. Thirteen first generation Asian Indian mothers were recruited through a combination of snowball and theoretical sampling techniques. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) Maintaining core Indian values in daily life, (b) Maintaining transnational connections, (c) Preference for Indian enclaves, …

How Big Is Too Big? : The Potentially Coercive Effects Of Plea Discount On Innocent Defendants, Ryan Schneider

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the United States, approximately 95% of all criminal cases end in guilty pleas. Many scholars are concerned with plea bargaining’s potential to be coercive, and cite data on wrongful convictions as proof that an innocence problem exists. Estimates of false guilty pleas may range between 18 and 27 percent, though a true base rate is difficult to establish. Using vignettes, I examined the effects of guilt, trial penalty and plea discount size on plea decisions of adult participants recruited online through TurkPrime. Guilt was the strongest predictor of plea acceptance, but guilty plea rates increased for all participants with …

Crawling Through Life : The Counseling Experiences Of Women Who Have Placed A Child For Adoption, Elliotte Sue Harrington

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Placing a child for adoption can be a life changing experience. Some women who place their children for adoption (birth mothers) report feelings of depression, anxiety, posttrauma, and grief. At times they may feel rejected or isolated. They may view themselves in the negative way that they may be perceived by family, friends, and society in general. All of these feelings and experiences, among many other life experiences, may lead a birth mother to seek and attend counseling. The purpose of this study was to help counselors, researchers, and educators to begin to understand how birth mothers describe their experiences …

Resolving The Populist Paradox : Politics, Perception, And Identity In The United States, Pierre Avalos

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The concept of populism is ubiquitous in the international arena. Whether in Brexit, the surge of nationalism in display across the international system, or Donald Trump's presidency, populism is a mainstay of modern social, political, and economic systems. Although it’s historical and conceptual aspects are instructive, populism's most defining elements are revealed in its socioeconomic aspects. This is represented in a politicalcultural model, which considers its conceptual imperatives based on the ideological approach to defining populism, and a refinement of this model that relies upon the prevalence of economic factors and cultural factors. The purpose of this research is to …

An Eye-Tracking Investigation Of Facial Affect Recognition In Traumatic Brain Injury And Healthy Individuals, Joseph Walter Deangelis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is considered a public health issue and affects millions of people worldwide. While individuals with TBI suffer from a variety of motor and cognitive deficits, this project focused on the social cognitive problems that individuals with TBI experience, specifically facial affect recognition. The primary goal of this study was to better understand facial affect recognition and how it is affected by attention abilities in individuals with TBI. In Experiment 1, we examined how facial affect recognition is associated with attentional abilities using correlational analyses in a sample of 28 participants. In Experiment 2, which was divided …

Garden Path Sentence Processing As A Measure Of Belief Updating, Alexis Diana Grant

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Handedness is a marker for individual differences in brain organization. Garden path sentences (GPS), those that require a mid-sentence change in understanding to capture sentence meaning require the updating of beliefs via the right hemisphere. Inconsistent-handers (ICH) have increased access to right hemisphere processes, which has previously been shown to result in increased belief updating. It was hypothesized that ICH would be more accurate and more rapid in their processing of GPS relative to consistent right handers (CRH) due to increased access to the neural structures involved. Additionally, men and women differ in their brain organization, and in their cortical …

Leadership Developmental Readiness : Furthering Our Understanding Of This Multi-Dimensional Construct, Quinn E. Knudsen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although Leader Developmental Readiness (LDR) has been discussed in the leadership literature for over a decade, there has been little consensus on what factors constitute whether one is ready to develop as a leader. The purpose of our research was to consolidate and provide a cohesive model of the motivational components of LDR that encompasses the existing body of research. We used a longitudinal database containing 328 first semester freshmen students from five universities involved in leadership development programs to assess how the proposed LDR factors cluster and the antecedents of these factors. Our model suggests LDR as constituting a …

Measuring Early Emergence Of Self-Awareness In Infants Using Eye Tracking, Melanie Lawrie

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Recent attention has been paid to the neurological, evolutionary, and developmental correlates of human self-face recognition. In the present study, we examined 12-, 18-, and 24-month-olds using eye tracking to determine if there was a unique visual scan path of faces for self-recognizers as compared to non-recognizers. Results indicated that overall, 12- and 24-month-olds have different scan-paths compared to 18-month-olds. Eighteen-month-olds have an increased number of fixations and fixation time spent on the eyes, mouth and top half of the face, while 12- and 24 month-olds have more fixations on the nose and bottom half of the face. Furthermore, self-recognizers …

Meaningfulness Of Work And Family In Working Parents As A Predictor Of Work Family Balance, Enrichment, And Conflict, Sydney Reeves

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

There are arguably great benefits when employees experience a sense of purpose or meaningfulness in their work. The current study examined whether felt meaningfulness of work and family predicts one’s tendency to manage work/life outcomes. Via survey methodology, 386 participants reported the sense of meaningfulness they derived from their work and from their family responsibilities. Analyses explored how individuals’ relative ratings of work and family meaningfulness, as well as the similarity of these perceptions with those of their spouses/partners, affect Work Family Conflict, Balance, and Enrichment. Results showed that meaningfulness of work and family significantly affected work family outcomes. Furthermore, …

Young Seasonal Employees : How Work Conditions And Burnout Contribute To Turnover Intentions, Marlee Wanamaker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

To date there has been little research conducted on young seasonal workers, leaving a dearth in the literature regarding such things as how they react to their work environment and the outcomes of those reactions. This study focuses on burnout in young seasonal workers in the amusement park industry, using the job demands-resource model to make predictions. Surveys from 155 young seasonal workers at six amusement parks on the eastern coast of the US responded to surveys at two points in time measuring job demands, job resources, burnout, and intention to turnover. Hypotheses were tested using moderated regression to investigate …

African American Christians’ Decision Making To Pursue Or Not Pursue Professional Psychological Help : A Qualitative Study, Dawn Y. Norman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The aim of this study was to explore how African American Christians’ have experienced decision making related to seeking counseling and other mental health treatment outside of the church. To this end, this study asked the following research question: What influences African American Christians’ decisions to pursue or not pursue professional psychological help? The impact of culturally related influences on the help seeking decision making of African American Christians was explored and discussed throughout this research study. The research question for this study was addressed through a qualitative interview design. This qualitative design included interviewing a total of 12 African …

Negotiating An Identity : Portraits Of The Sexual Identity Self-Labeling Process For Non-Heterosexual Women In Early Adulthood, Stacy A. Pinto

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The concept of sexual identity has been evolving for decades. While there has been research and theory on the development of sexual identity, researchers have paid little attention to what, specifically, influences individuals to adopt one label for their sexual identity over another. This study employed qualitative methods of research, based in portraiture, to gather and analyze data on three non-heterosexual, self-identified women in early adulthood, from a metropolitan area in the northeastern United States. Each participant’s experience, as it relates to the labeling process for their sexual identity, is presented in its own portrait, and subsequently analyzed to highlight …

How Do Culturally Responsive School Counselors Make Meaning Of The Challenges They Face In Meeting The Needs Of A Diverse Student Population And Enact Effective Practices?, Frank Andrisani

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate how school counselors who are culturally responsive make meaning of their practices and the challenges faced in meeting the needs of a diverse population. Specifically, my study concentrated on examining real life experiences/practices that resulted in a rich explanation of the phenomenon studied. Hearing the voices of school counselors describing their practices and experiences in providing culturally responsive counseling services contributed to better understanding of the strategies, programs, and actions that define culturally response counseling. This dissertation includes an overview of the study, a review of the pertinent literature, a detailed description …

Biological Factors In The Stem Gender Gap, Yamina Nater-Otero

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Gender gap in STEM is a long-term problem that has only recently been addressed. Research has just begun to delve into why so few women pursue university degrees in the STEM fields and even less enter the STEM workforce. This research will examine the evolutionary factors which contributed to the gender gap, such as offspring investment, greater investment in male offspring, and female risk aversion. Despite the fact that there are plenty of modern advances which should compensate for these factors, there are societal stigmas against women in the STEM workplace which allow the gender gap to continue. Societal …

Using Signage To Direct Attention May Increase Motivation, Sharon Lynn Smith Pidgeon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Motivation is a complex psychological construct, and one with astoundingly broad applicability. There are likely many underlying components of motivation, including memory, emotion, experience, physiology, talent, and attention. Research by Suri and Gross (2015) provides evidence for the basic hypothesis that attention contributes to motivation. By hanging signs in office cafeterias to draw attention to apples, they were able to demonstrate a significant increase in apple sales. The experiment described in this paper was designed to replicate the effect seen by Suri and Gross, using signs to draw attention to drinking water in order to increase water dispensed in an …

The Relationship Between Professional Development Engagement And Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy, And Athletic Identity In College Students Vs. College Student Athletes, Ashley E. Janosko

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

There has been limited research that focuses on Division III college student athletes and the career development process. Although previous researchers have studied the relationship between athletic identity and career decision making self-efficacy (CDMSE) among college student athletes, results have been inconsistent, with different researchers finding inverse, positive, or no relationships between variables. In addition, numerous researchers have examined career development among college student athletes. However, there has been no research to date that studies professional development engagement (PDE) and college student athletes. In addition, the majority of career development studies involving college student athletes have focused on either Division …

The Reported Experiences Of Adult To Adult Bullying In K-12 New Jersey Public Schools, Julia R. Mazzarella

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This is a qualitative study which investigated the reported experiences of adult to adult bullying by other certified school professionals in a K-12 New Jersey public school setting. The study focused on: 1.) How bullies bully; 2.) The behavioral, psychological, somatic, and career manifestations for the targets of bullying; 3.) The support or lack of support experienced by those who were bullied; 4.) Characteristics of school and school district cultures; and, 5.) Survival techniques used by the bullying targets.

The main findings of this study are described here. First, adult to adult bullying by professionals in schools can take many …

Using Eye-Tracking To Explore Preference For High Value Visual Stimuli, Joseph C. Melon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Eye-tracking is becoming more prevalent in studying various phenomena in psychology. The physiological behavior of eye gaze can reveal psychological processes that may not be conscious. The current study explored whether gaze behavior can be linked to political attitudes. Participants looked at pictures of political candidates with an audio clip of one of their speeches playing as an eye-tracker recorded their gaze behavior. Participants were asked to rate the candidates on an attitude scale. Results showed that only attitudes toward Donald Trump were correlated with gaze duration. In addition, the survey showed that participants gave significantly more extreme answers (either …

The Mitigation Of Stereotype Threat Through Embodied Cogition, Darla Van Govan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Stereotype threat has been well-supported by decades of research. It is a pervasive phenomenon which affects multiple social groups with both immediate and lasting consequences. Therefore, it has been of a particular importance to study strategies that may serve at mitigating the effects of stereotype threat. Women, in particular, often face stereotypes that state that women are inferior to men in certain domains, among which are mathematics, spatial reasoning, driving ability, leadership, and making financial decisions. In the current study, we evaluate whether embodied cognition can be used to mitigate the effects of stereotype threat experienced by women in the …